NY Thruway facilitators

The Thruway is looking for a handful of regional facilitators, each of whom will be in charge of following, and if possible, shaping the transport-politics of their assigned region as it affects the Thruway. Outreach, liaison, community involvement, coalition-building will be the buzz-words. The Thruway is apparently too far-flung for projects’ public affair activities to all be managed out of the head office in Albany. The Thruway has public affairs officers at four regional offices – Tarrytown, Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo. The facilitators would have more autonomy to negotiate.

They’ve decided they need to do something “more creative” than simply adjusting tolls upward from time to time. The Thruway recently retreated form an annual toll-adjustment plan in the face of political opposition. Hopefully this will help to facilitate measures that will improve the service of the Thruway and attract more customers. And help them to get tolls on presently untolled stretches of road that they have to maintain, and to move to value pricing and other new concepts in tolling. (Contact John Platt, CEO john_platt@thruway.state.ny.us)